Sellers/Buyers Roll Call 7

[MrBobLobLaw]

Stressed vendors and buyers alike: assemble here to moan about bloody solicitors!

Feel free to join at any point

[Hawkmoth]

@TempestHayes we are selling in England and buying in Scotland so we can't put a formal offer in until we have exchanged. Our Scottish solicitor does seem to have a lot of paperwork good to go though and everything looks simple enough.

We've been doing a bit of planning this afternoon and found a lovely air bnb to cover the time it will take for our stuff to arrive. I feel better about it now but then tomorrow might be another zero progress day.

It's illogical to me. At this point surely they just want to move the file on and crack on with something else?! I might offer to pay for document couriers tomorrow. I fucked something up at work recently and had to pay for one so I know they are worth their weight in gold!

@MrBobLobLaw being overdue is so tedious. I really sympathise.

[Hawkmoth]

Buyers have signed the contract and posted it back. We could exchange tomorrow, which would mean our completion date would be ok, even if it means a couple more nights in a cottage and the pets in kennels.

Have sorted out hats and scarves today!!

[bettyskitchen]

Congratulations @MrBobLobLaw!

I’ve been following from afar these past couple of months because our “simple” chain free purchase is not going to plan! We all agreed in August to exchange end of Sept, the way it’s going we won’t be in before Christmas - were in a rental so there needs to be 3/4 weeks between exchange and completion. Fed up of the lies, slow responses and lack of updates from vendor / solicitor.
We’re essentially waiting on a form to be signed by the freeholder before we can exchange. He is putting his foot down (rightly so) due to a dispute with the current vendor due to an issue from 2017!
To top it off was really hoping we’d be in the end of this month in time for some Black Friday house purchases instead I’ll have to wait for the January sales...

[Pilodowan]

Joining

We're currently renting. Made our offer on 7th September which was accepted. There have been no hold ups that I'm aware of at our end but it seems to be taking ages.

The vendor has had an offer accepted on a house and their vendors said they wanted it all done and dusted in 28 days. That was 3 weeks ago and heard nothing from them since

We got the mortgage deeds to sign at the weekend which we have done and sent back. Any ideas how much longer we can expect to wait from this point?

[AlmaMartyr]

@Hawkmoth that's great, hope you exchange soon!

@bettyskitchen frustrating! Fingers crossed you manage Christmas anyway!

@pilodowan not sure how long but hope it speeds up for you!

Apparently all our searches are back and solicitors raising enquiries now so goodness knows how long we're waiting. I've given up on being in by Christmas at this point. Buyers solicitors still waiting for search results.

[Blobby10]

*@Pilodowan * its worth phoning either your solicitor or the EA handling the sale on a regular basis for an update. Start weekly then twice a week until you get so frustrated with the lack of progress that you're phoning them every day!!! In my (vast) experience of moving house, the vendor/buyer is not kept up to date voluntarily and usually has to make a nuisance of themselves in order to get things moving.

[TempestHayes]

If it were up to me I'd phone every day and frankly lose my shit. We were told all the questions had been answered, paperwork done, on October 21st. The vendor's solicitor has gone silent and won't even respond to the vendor!

It's infuriating. There haven't been any complications at all, everyone is keen to move, and they're just sitting there as if they're being paid by the day.

[Blobby10]

*@TempestHayes * why on earth doesn't the vendor visit the solicitors offices and demand attention?! I think this is the problem with so much stuff being done online and via email these days, we are losing the habit of actually going and meeting with our legal people!

[Hawkmoth]

Nothing yet here. DH is now starting to lose his sanity as well. It's good I'm not alone in my dressing but just awful. We now have two weeks to organise everything... if it actually happens.

[TempestHayes]

@Blobby10 That's a good observation, certainly could be. Perhaps they're just not very assertive or are nervous about the whole process. The whole industry's mad. I'm sure most of this could be done with a couple of online searches and a bit of digging. I've dug up the history of the house and its residents back to the late 1880s just using google and free genealogy resources. Give me another week, I'll get that Land Registry guff sorted!

[gingerninja99]

Well buyers survey has been done this morning. They have opted for a smart survey which is all done via iPad so they can see results online straight away. Surveyor was getting fairly annoyed at the iPad trying to take photos so ended up doing back ups on his phone.
He was here nearly 3 hrs when he said he would be normally done within the hour!
Just need to wait and see what the buyers think of the results, he gave no indication as I expected as he's not working for me. Buyers did want to exchange tomorrow but not sure if that will happen now. They survey was the last thing I think, everything else is good to go

[Candlesky]

We accepted an offer on our flat yesterday after 10 weeks on the market. Survey is booked in for next week so fingers crossed everything goes smoothly. Now the small task of finding somewhere to buy!

[Little11]

How is everyone getting on? We are creeping ever closer now and hoping to nail a completion date this week...

[Hawkmoth]

Oh we are definitely exchanging tomorrow.

[MrBobLobLaw]

Baby Rafael arrived on Wednesday night at 9 days overdue! 4.03 kgs of contentedness.

Had a really amazingly calm water birth, despite all the stress and panic of the last few months. He's such a trooper.

Still unpacking and deciding on/ordering furniture and having yet more bloody boxes arriving but we are so so happy. My toddler... less so!

Bloody good luck everyone, it's a fucker of a system so keep at it. One day I promise you will move house!

[AlmaMartyr]

@MrBobLobLaw congratulations! He is absolutely gorgeous, what a cutie! Glad all well, you must be so incredibly happy 💐 Enjoy new house and new babe!

[Hawkmoth]

@MrBobLobLaw congratulations. What a gorgeous baby. Enjoy your family and your new nest!

[gingerninja99]

@MrBobLobLaw massive congratulations!! He is just adorable

[Blobby10]

@MrBobLobLaw Congratulations!!! He is gorgeous!!!! xx

[Jayne35]

Congratulations @MrBobLobLaw, he is beautiful. Enjoy the new baby and the new home

We should be exchanging (finally!) on Wednesday for completion on 28th, so in before Christmas thankfully!

Good luck to the rest of you waiting on exchange/completion dates.

[catndogslife]

Congratulations @MrBobLobLaw - a new home and a new baby wow!
He looks really chilled and unaffacted by the whole house moving process.

[bettyskitchen]

Ahhh congratulations @MrBobLobLaw, he’s adorable!

[magnarocks]

Haven't posted for ages.

Had two offers on the same day after six months without a sniff of an offer... like buses...

Trying to keep an open mind.

[AlmaMartyr]

@magnarocks yay for offers!

@Jayne35 fingers crossed for exchange tomorrow, that's excellent.

We're still waiting on enquiries, solicitor refusing to talk dates at all. Spoke to a friend yesterday who reckons we won't be in before February half term . I'm really hoping that's not the case - they were very pessimistic though.

[burritofan]

I've been awol trying to fix the imminent collapse of the world's shortest chain.

We're in the middle. Below us, FTB buying our flat who GAVE NOTICE ON THEIR RENTAL before exchange/completion was agreed. So they're now not budging from a pre-Christmas date.

Above us, a vendor who has so far switched solicitors (and not updated anyone), offered and reneged on three separate properties (and not updated anyone), and eventually promised to vacate at any time to facilitate the sale… right up until the pre-Christmas date was mooted at which point he said, "Oh, I didn't mean then".

Buyers won't budge, despite having time to rescind their notice. Vendor won't budge, despite having another home to go to. Us in the middle unable to break chain and move into rented because buyers' preferred completion date is now 2.5 weeks away and between DP's insane commute and our insane baby the thought of arranging packers, movers, storage and a rental property, right before Christmas, makes me want to vomit. Also six months London rent would basically kill our renovation plans stone dead.

It's either agree a completion date today and exchange tomorrow, or the chain collapses tomorrow. Either way I think I'll collapse. Send wine.